In early 2008 AdAge contacted the top 150 blogs in their Power 150 blog rankings and asked the writers of those blogs to tell AdAge what technology marketers should be paying most attention to in 2008. They called it Crystal Ball 2.0.

Now, here we are a year later; who was right? Who was wrong? Who was ahead of the curve? Over the next few weeks I will share the original predictions, share my thoughts and of course ask for you to chime in with your thoughts and predictions for 2009.

Mobile apps. But not in a whiz-bang, over-the-top manner; the sort of incremental mobile apps that make ordinary things even easier, like let you pay back friends on the fly, split the check at restaurants, pre-order your coffee so you can bypass the line at a local café, pay your belated phone bill, donate to your political candidate ... It's the little things that take us by storm.Adjoke thoughts: Mobile apps definitely saw a rise in adoption both by marketers as well as consumers. Everything from Obama's impressive use of the technology to simple apps such as e-boarding passes, mint.com's genius financial apps, e*trade mobile pro and remember the milk supports that Marie Lena Tupot was someone to listen to in 2008 and I look forward to hearing her predictions for 2009.

Adjoke Mobile App thoughts for 2009: Can 2009 be the year North America embraces the QR code? It should be. The ease of use and benefit to the consumer is remarkable but for them to take-off the devices need to be set-up to support the required functionality. I would love to see every camera enabled phone to be enabled to read QR codes by the end of 2009. A few of my favourite uses of the QR code are:

The iPhone will continue to be the single biggest catalyst for the development and evolution of mobile apps for the foreseable future and as the mobile phone becomes more and more entrenched into our daily life marketers will have an enormous opportunity to connect with consumers. The cellphone will become among others a means to bank, purchase, manage time, keep in touch through social networks and access the internet and email. The marketers that have invested in this technology, learned from their experiences and attracted customers who utilize these apps will find themselves in a wonderful position in a few years when their competitors are playing catch-up.

New business is a big part of any agency - especially given the current economic client. Working on a new pitch for a digital piece of business? Take a moment and check out this client-created list of 21 things that should not be included in your presentation.

My favorites:

Your new video uses exactly the same idea as the one you sent me three months ago, for a completely different product.

Pitch includes the phrases “the new Facebook” or “Facebook for X” (where X is some niche group that nobody cares about, not even the people in the group).

You tell me that your video has been getting “quite a bit of attention on YouTube”. When I click through, it has 239 views.

It's easy to spot people who 'talk digital' and the ones who actually live it. Which one are you?

Friday

In case you didn't hear, the web has a ton of niche sites for anyone's specific interests. One category that is starting to become more fragmented is the Job Search market.

Sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder provide a huge starting ground for perspective job seekers and employeers, but because of their size, the jobs can range from sweeping floors to being a CEO - they don't make it that easy to find exactly what you want.

On the flip side, employeers might receive hundreds of CV's but how many of them are actually qualified leads?

One great example of a niche job site is TalentEgg. We've written about it before but if you're a student (or one that is just about to graduate) it's a great place to post your CV and find a company that is right for you. As you can see from the design, it's extremly easy to start a profile and start job searching.

TalentEgg differentiates itself because it's not for everyone - it's for students. This approach helps to define a tight strategy for the site because they know exactly who their target is and what they want.

On the flip side, a new job site called The Ladders has just launched:

How does the Ladders differentiate itself? It only posts jobs with starting salary's above $100K US. Interesting idea but still broad when you think about it. How will the Ladders qualify who can become a member and who can't?

I'm sure there are a lot of students out there who think that they are worth $100K right out of school. How does the Ladder insure that employeers aren't flooded with resume's of unqualified people?

All and all, niche is here to stay. I don't want to go to just any job site, I want to go to one that's designed just for me.

I think this is my current favorite spot of 2009. It's random (and weird) and is part of a series for a travel company. But it sticks out and I'd definitely stop my FFWD on the PVR to check it out a few times.

Here's the second version of the campaign (a little more out there as you'll see, but still a pretty funny idea):

Thursday

A lot of people always ask me what Blogs I read on a regular basis. If you're looking for something new, be sure to check out our blog roll. And if you're looking for the current (based on Alexa.com rankings) Top 25 ad blogs in the world, check them out right here.

You'll probably notice a few 'typical' ones, however there are about 10 on hear that I'd never heard of. Well worth checking out what other ad-folks are saying...especially when you're looking for ways to add value to your clients business during these 'fun' economic times.

Wednesday

I like the random 80's references, the hilarious looking characters and, of course, the Virgin airline folks. I'm not sure how I feel about the "Still Red Hot" tagline but the back end animation is nice.

Still, you don't really see 90's anymore in North America. And for an airline like Virgin, I would hope that a large portion of their marketing dollars are spent online on their site (doubtful).

Tuesday

A few weeks ago, we did a post about a great presentation put together by the folks at Razorfish about the potential uses of Facebook Connect. After doing some more research on the new service, I think that it could become a huge part of the web in the next year and it's something that all digital people should be aware of (and testing / trying).

Think about it. In the near future, you're going to be able to take your friends with you to any site you want (or kick them out for ones you don't want them coming with you too). Sites will optimize their content based on your interests, what you like and want, your location, your data. Imagine checking out a product review and reading the comments of all your friends who have tried it, bought it, tested it.

Better yet. Imagine having your friends there to tell you what they think of a purchase, product or service before you buy. It's like being at a shopping mall with a friend and asking for their opinion on a shirt before you lay down the cash for it.

Facebook Connect is coming and we want you to be prepared. To that end, we've spend the last little while trying to figure out how to add FB Connect to AdJoke and to be honest, it was pretty easy.

As you'll see, to leave a comment on any of our posts, all you have to do is login to your Facebook profile (from AdJoke) and comment away. Your comments might appear in the Facebook newsfeed for your friends to see and you'll have access to photo's of the other people in the AdJoke community.

We're pretty excited to test it out. Try it for yourself now by leaving a comment!

Sunday

Have you ever sent someone a virtual gift on Facebook? You know, like a football or rose for Valentines day? If you haven't, you're in the minority. Virtual gifts are immensely popular on the site. Applications exist for users to create their own, there are gifts for sports teams, random holiday's, products - everything.

However there is one problem with them - their virtual. They don't really exist. Practically, their useless.

But now things are starting to change. In November 2008, a new application launched on Facebook called GetThemin. The application, for UK residents only, allows users to send virtual gifts to users than can then be redeemed for the real thing at over 1500 locations across England.

Why is this cool? Because the gifts are for booze - hard liqour, beer, spirits, whatever. Just download the application, select the gift you want to send (and buy it or flip over a voucher) and in less than seconds, your friend has it. They can print off the voucher and walk to their nearest pub or store and down their pint...all from you.

The applications for turning virtual gifts into real products are vast. For one, it's much easier to send through a virtual promotion than print out a card to have street teams hand them out in the street. It's also way harder to lose (think about the number of random promotions that you get as bills or gift cards or whatever that you lose within a day or so).

Smart brands will start to allow consumers to send their virtual products to their friends for real-life benefits. Beer is only the start.

As for North America, it doesn't look like an application like this exists yet. More incentive for the right brand to come in and dominate.